MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Skyler Howard threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, and No. 16 West Virginia held on for a 24-21 victory over Baylor on Saturday night in their Big 12 regular-season finale.
Justin Crawford rushed for 209 yards to help the Mountaineers (10-2, 7-2) to their first 10-victory regular-season since 2007. They came from 11 points down in the first half to hand Baylor (6-6, 3-6) its sixth consecutive loss after a 6-0 start.
Baylor held the momentum for nearly three quarters in the final regular-season game for acting coach Jim Grobe, but that changed on two plays.
Howard, having one of his worst games of the season, threw to Gary Jennings over the middle and he turned it into a 58-yard scoring play.
After Baylor got the ball back, Marvin Gross stripped quarterback Zach Smith, and Darrien Howard recovered for West Virginia. An unsportsmanlike penalty on Baylor gave the Mountaineers the ball at the Bears 6, and Howard scored on a 1-yard sneak on fourth down for a 24-14 lead.
Smith threw a 43-yard TD toss to Ishmael Zamora with 2:40 left in the game and the Bears got the ball back following a punt with 51 seconds left. But Smith was stripped of the ball on a pass attempt and West Virginia’s Darrien Howard recovered at the Baylor 30 with 27 seconds left.